Woman’s Mugshot Goes Viral, Leads To Requests For Makeup Advice

DALLAS, Texas (CBS Local) – A Texas teen’s mugshot has unexpectedly launched her career as a makeup artist.

Marshala Perkins of Dallas was arrested in February and charged with possession of marijuana. The 19-year-old was reportedly questioned by police after finishing a makeup tutorial.

The teen told reporters she was sitting in her car waiting for friends when officers found two grams of marijuana in the vehicle. After the incident, Greenville police posted the mugshot on their Facebook page, leaving Perkins embarrassed over the arrest.

“People were sending it to me asking, ‘Is this you?’ At the time I was embarrassed so I was like, ‘Nah, I don’t know who that is,'” Perkins told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

What the teen didn’t expect was her mugshot to get re-posted by a Twitter account that specializes in images of attractive people under arrest. Mugshot Baes tweeted Perkins’ photo in April and it was liked over 11,000 times. A retweet asking for makeup tips quickly went viral and has been liked over 280,000 times.

“Someone has reached out to me about starting my own makeup line. It’s crazy. My mind is blown,” Perkins told reporters. “Now it’s turned into something so positive so I’m just going to embrace it and see where it takes me.”

The explosion of requests for makeup help motivated Perkins to launch her own Instagram account, focused on promoting her makeup artist skills. “I was still kind of embarrassed about it,” Perkins added. “But then when I started reading the comments I was like, besides me being in jail people are really noticing my talent and what I can do.”